Profile: Mr. Z, from Lifeguard to DRLC

_{By Alfredo L. and Jose M.}

Our fellow support staff here at C.A.T.S is recognized by all but how well do we really know him? We dove into Z’s interesting backstory and found out more about him. He enjoys spending time with his family whenever he can, including 4 kids and a grandson. During his high school years, Z actually played football, he then went on to being a semi pro football player. He unfortunately got injured and when he got back to the field he couldn’t perform as he once could before. Putting his head up after this injury he continued to live his life. Z told us that he enjoys working with kids which made him become one of the football coaches at Diego Rivera. He likes to push kids into their fullest potential so they can know they can go further. 

Z started his career when he began working as a youth counselor at Parks of Ray. He later became a lifeguard at the pool of where the park he worked at was. Z had then started working with L.A bridges and was working at John Muir Middle school. Z worked at John Muir middle school for about 13 years. Then came along Green Dot and Charter programs which Z moved to next. Unfortunately the schools had to let go of staff and Z was one of the unfortunate ones. 

Z continued his journey and began working at Diego Rivera Learning Complex in 2011, when it had first opened. One of his best moments at Diego Rivera Learning Complex is when we had an assembly during the time Mr. Rahh was still the Vice Principal at C.A.T.S , it was when the DJ introduced Z with a song that Z had been listening to and the DJ had no idea that was Z’s favorite song at the time. The song was by Dr. Dre and Z was astonished and surprised because of the coincidence. Z has no favorite year at Diego Rivera as he said, “every year is different since kids come and go but I’ve seen the school progress a lot as of every year since it opened up” for example the school has added more sports such as wrestling, volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, and football.

As of now Z is just living his life day to day, going with the flow as time goes by. Z is one of the coolest staffs here at C.A.T.S as he has told us that everyone should keep it 100 to themselves because we are the main people we want to uplift because at the end of the day we are on our own person.